The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors.
Electrical connectors are used within communication systems to electrically connect components, such as circuit boards. For example, electrical connectors may be used to connect a daughter card and a backplane. High speed electrical connectors typically include a housing holding a plurality of contacts. The contacts have compliant pins configured to be press-fit into the circuit board. The compliant pins have neck regions that are narrower and bulged regions that are wider. At the necked regions, the impedance is increased affecting the data transmission along the signal contact. Some known electrical connectors include pin organizers at the bottoms of the electrical connectors to hold the pins for mounting to the circuit board. The organizers are typically made from rigid plastic materials that slide over the compliant pins onto the bottom of the electrical connector as the electrical connector is mounted to the circuit board. The slot size for sliding over the compliant pin must accommodate the widest part of the compliant pin. However, when the organizer is seated against the electrical connector, the slots are aligned with the narrower region of the pin such that a significant amount of air is introduced around the pen at the interface between the circuit board and the bottom of the electrical connector. Signal integrity issues arise at the mounting area between differential pairs of signals due to the higher impedance introduced by the air around the pins in such region.
A need remains for an electrical connector having improved signal integrity at the mounting interface between the electrical connector and the circuit board.